A Second Chance
by Chaotic Alliance
Summary: From the void between realities, Shadow and Sonic are pulled back in time by Shadow's heart. Alone and facing the might of the entire military force of GUN, can they nonetheless gain a second chance at a life long since lost?
1. Prologue

Authors' Note: This story uses Ardil the Traveller's "A Single Wish" as its basis, taking that as occurring in the recent past, and Shadow having recovered only a short time before this story begins. We both hope you enjoy it!  
  
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The Multiverse contains an infinite number of different 'realities', in which every conceivable possibility is played out. The existence of these many realities cannot be truly visualised in ordinary four-dimensional terms, for in such terms they are all in the same place, existing yet somehow not interfering with one another. There are more dimensions to space than those that humans can easily understand, and it is 'distance' in those other dimensions that separates the realities each from the other. Infinitely small, yet also infinitely vast, nothing can be contained within this 'distance' that is not - and yet there is something within the walls that separate the 'worlds'. It is formless; space and time have no meaning there. In almost all terms but one, it does not even exist. That one term is spirit, and that place is that which the Travellers would know as Waypoint. Yet there is more to this space, if such terms can be applied at all, than the Waypoint 'village'; for those who do not enter under the guidance of Those Who Walk the Worlds, it is a formless void, shaped by the thoughts of those who perceive it.  
  
Due to the infinite nature of the Multiverse, all things must come to pass eventually, and have come to pass before, and shall do so again - for time, too, varies and shifts, where it has any effect at all. Thus, it must be that all enter the void, sooner or later - and remain there, timeless, forever. For although it can be left, since it is timeless, the time to leave does not yet come - a spirit there, once there, will remain unchanging forever. Although even there it is possible to change and grow under the illusion of time that most living creatures manufacture for themselves, each instant of that growth is preserved for an eternity that is but a heartbeat, a timeless forever.  
  
And into this void, this formless, timeless, place that is not a place, have entered the spirits also of two great heroes - Sonic and Shadow, hedgehogs from a planet known to its inhabitants as Mobius. Hanging there in timeless darkness, but for the illusion of time they must create for themselves, the thoughts of both have turned to times past, to things that once were.  
  
For Sonic, it is the robot named Hyper Metal Sonic that shapes his thoughts, those recollections that change the void around him into a replica of the things he had once seen. Again his memory brings him to repeat that sequence of events that led to the destruction of that robot, Metal - again, Metal commits his form to the lava; again, a part of Sonic's mind, his very heart, dies.  
  
And as Sonic's recollections draw to their painful close, Shadow's memory begins to take control of the landscape... But the void, or perhaps those who rule it, or maybe simply the will of Shadow's heart, twist the fabric of that void to something else entirely - tipping Sonic and Shadow into a new reality... 


	2. Chapter 1

It was all happening again. The same way he'd relived it before, time after time. This was the worst sort, the times he knew how it would end, but he couldn't change it. Some part of him knew he was dreaming, because this had already happened. Such a long time ago, it was so short to him, regardless of his tattered memory. For him, none of the intervening years had ever happened - but to the rest of the world, it had been years. Fifty of them. And although it was a dream, he knew it was a dream, because there was no way it could be real... something felt different.  
  
They rounded a corner and stopped short, almost running into another group of soldiers. Shadow knew what would happen; he would whirl and tug her arm, they would run down another passage, a voice from behind them would call out - but all that passed through his mind in a split second, even as they tried to stop. And in this dream, somehow, though he'd never been able to before, he had a choice. He knew what would happen if he ran, had seen it in his mind's eye so many times - but this time, instead of turning and running, he turned his next step, the one that would have halted him to spin about, into a leap forwards, into an attack!  
  
Almost instantly, shots began to fire. He spared a glance behind himself; Maria had ducked into the side passage; she was watching, afraid, but not running. She wasn't going to leave him, any more than he'd leave her.  
  
It was a face-off. Shadow dodged, shots fired. He couldn't get much closer, but they couldn't hit him, either.  
  
How could his dreams be so cruel? It was bad enough reliving it without being forced to live a hope he could not have... because when he woke up... he'd still be fifty years in the future, she'd still be dead...  
  
A few more shots fired past him, then a temporary pause. Although he knew it was a false hope, although he knew it was a dream, he had to try - he had to. There was no way he could do anything else. Taking advantage of the momentary pause in the firing, he shot forward, closing rapidly. Another shot rang out; Shadow tried to dodge, but he was too close - it hit him in the leg and he tumbled out of the air, falling to the floor, suddenly unable to do much more than glare with hatred at the soldier aiming a gun at his head.  
  
And Sonic opened his eyes. The whole scene was a little vague, a little unclear, like it wasn't wholly real - but one thing caught and held his attention. Someone was pointing a gun at Shadow, had already managed to shoot him once! Instantly he shot forwards, spinning in the air, hitting the gun before anyone could even react to the sudden appearance of the second hedgehog. It flew from the soldier's hand, shattered, and collided with the wall.  
  
"Sonic?!" This was impossible, there was no way Sonic could be there, not even in his dream!  
  
Sonic stopped only for a fraction of a second to turn and spin over the soldiers' heads, knocking them out as he passed, their few ill-aimed shots missing him not only because of his speed, but because none of them had so much as seen where he came from. He landed half-kneeling, one hand down, as if ready to break into a run, a race. But his attitude wasn't one of readiness to move. His head down, he stared dully at nothing, the sudden burst of action giving way again to the memories of a time long past.  
  
Maria came to Shadow's side, kneeling by him, concerned and afraid. Far more important than the mysterious appearance of this strange ally was Shadow, and though she glanced at Sonic once, her attention was focused instead on the one she knew. Shadow looked up at her.  
  
"Maria? Are you okay?" There was something so strange about his voice, some kind of terrible knowledge, fear and disbelief, that she simply answered  
  
"I-I'm fine..."  
  
Sonic straightened up and turned to look at them both. He didn't know, couldn't know, much about this... but he'd gathered enough, and could infer the rest. He'd heard Shadow mention Maria before, had worked out more or less what must have happened from the diary of Gerald Robotnik. Just as he vaguely remembered seeing Shadow in his own recollections, so now it seemed he was experiencing Shadow's... or was he?  
  
Shadow couldn't believe it. She was alive, she was really alive! He'd lost sight of the fact that he had to be dreaming, or maybe it just didn't matter anymore, this felt so real, it had to be, somehow! All the pent-up emotion inside him mingled with his inexpressible relief and joy; he started crying, laughing, heedless of the pain in his leg, because none of it mattered, it was all right, it was going to be all right!  
  
"It's all right now, all right!!" He kept repeating it, laughing and sobbing uncontrollably, as if some tightly-bound knot of pain and grief had suddenly come undone, washed away in a flood of light. Knelt by his side, Maria couldn't understand. There was no way that she could understand. For her, none of that which Shadow had experienced had ever happened. She couldn't know any of the things that had so terribly weighed on his heart, none of the events, now in his past, yet possibly her future, that had hurt him so.  
  
Sonic looked on. This couldn't be what had happened before... not now. Not with Shadow acting like that - and not with him there. Why was he there, anyway? How could he be experiencing Shadow's memories? And not only that... the mere fact that he was there was changing things. What was going on?  
  
A thought occurred to him as his gaze took in the limp hand of an unconscious soldier, on the edge of his field of vision. There would be more of them, wouldn't there?! Sonic spun around, tense, ears pricked to catch even the slightest sound. Whatever this was all about, whatever was happening... there was no way he was going to let them get Shadow, not if he could possibly help it. No way he'd lose this friend, so like him, yet so different. No way he'd lose anyone again. No way...  
  
If more soldiers appeared, he'd be ready for them. Deep inside, a part of him even wanted to fight. After the 'vision', whatever it had been that had so effortlessly reached inside him to find his deepest-buried emotions and force him to relive everything over again, there was a small part of him that wanted to take out his feelings on some foe. The rapid split-second action of a fight would bury his thoughts beneath his awareness for a little, just as concentrating his whole being into running would, were he free to run. And so Sonic listened, most of him hoping that he heard nothing, but a small part still wanting to fight.  
  
Sounds echoed faintly through the passages of the space colony. Footsteps - someone in boots, running... speech! Sonic listened, tense, trying to catch what was being said, trying to hear whether the sound was coming closer or further away... but it was already faint, echoing down the passages, distorted, and partially drowned out by Shadow. He waited, every nerve attuned to the slightest change, whether sound or light or even touch.  
  
The voices grew closer. Still listening, every muscle tense, Sonic managed to pick up a few of the words, fragments of something.  
  
"... sir ... are they?" was all he could hear from one voice, unable to tell what he'd missed. The response was short, quiet, although emphatic, still only just audible in fragments.  
  
"... up! ... give ... away." Sonic could guess well enough what the whole sentence had been.  
  
Shadow had heard something, too; he abruptly fell silent, eyes wide with fear. What would happen now? He couldn't fight... couldn't do anything... had his hopes been raised only to knock them down again? He couldn't defend her... couldn't even run... was it going to end as it had before? No... oh, no...  
  
Maria was still kneeling by his side, holding onto his arm, eyes wide and afraid. She, too, must have heard, either that or she'd guessed well enough from the reactions of the other two.  
  
Sonic looked in the direction of the fragmentary voices, a resolute expression settling across his features. If this truly was something from Shadow's memory, as he had re-experienced Metal's death... he had to try and somehow make things work out better. There was nothing he could have done about his own vision, maybe, but Shadow's had clearly already changed, was already changing. Whatever he could do to change things, Shadow deserved it and more. It was in everything, the disjointed mumblings of his long, healing sleep, in the emotions Sonic could sometimes read behind those red eyes or in Shadow's expression, in the way he reacted to events, in the fact that he'd joined Robotnik when he was finally released from stasis. After some point in his life, Shadow had known little more than pain, loss, fear, hurt... and whatever it was that had destroyed his memory, leaving him only scattered fragments. Sonic would do whatever he could, in this sudden chance to maybe help, somehow. Weren't there enough things in his own life he'd wanted to change? Enough times he'd wanted to go back and find a different way for things to have gone? Shadow deserved a chance at the happiness he'd lost, so long ago...  
  
Shadow tried to stand, painfully, only just managing it, all his weight on his unhurt leg. They had to get to the escape pods or find somewhere to hide... if they stayed, it would all be over. He took a few unsteady, limping steps before his leg gave out completely as he tried to take one more, and he fell again with a cry, the pain too much for him to bear.  
  
Maria was at his side almost at once, a scared, worried cry of "Shadow!" escaping her. Sonic, too, turned and dashed over, expression no longer resolute, afraid instead for Shadow. After a moment, he stopped staring helplessly at him, looking wildly around the corridor for a door, somewhere, anywhere they'd be able to hide.  
  
There was a door, just a few metres ahead of where he and Maria were crouched with the fallen hedgehog. If they could hide in there... Sonic stood, running over to it, trying to get it open. It was stiff, locked down perhaps by the computer systems, due to the state of emergency he'd been hearing the alarms of since he first realised where he was. He threw every bit of strength he had into the effort of getting it open, struggling with it until it was wide enough to let them through, knowing that the soldiers were closing on them with every second that passed.  
  
The room behind the door seemed to be used for storage, boxes and crates stacked neatly and grouped together, perhaps by contents. There was no other door that he could see, only one way in to defend - and only one way out, one way which, if there was trouble, would become impassable - but it was better by far than waiting in the open corridor until they were all caught! Sonic raced back to Shadow, lifting him as fast and carefully as he could, calling back as he ran to the room,  
  
"Come on!"  
  
Maria followed, was already following, scared and confused, shocked and shaken to the core by what was happening. She slipped in through the partly-open door after him, watched him as he lay Shadow down in a place hidden from view of the door by one of the stacks, saw him run back to outside the door and force it closed again.  
  
Shadow's eyes were closed, now. Maria knelt by his side again, staring at him helplessly, desperately, knowing he was getting worse... afraid, along with everything else, that he was going to die...  
  
"...Shadow...?" She hardly dared ask in case he didn't respond... but Shadow half-opened his eyes and looked up at her.  
  
"Yes, Maria?"  
  
He heard her faint sigh of relief, heard her voice catch on the reply and trail away after only managing one word, saw how scared she looked and noticed she was shaking, all with a surprising clarity in an instant. Terrified himself, and in pain, he still tried to comfort her, tell her that it would be all right. And he tried to believe it himself.  
  
"Maria... it's okay... I'll be fine. We'll get out of this mess..."  
  
She nodded, a little shakily, taking hold of his hand, wanting to believe him so desperately. Life had suddenly turned so strange and terrible...  
  
Outside, Sonic waited, ready, knowing the approaching soldiers were almost there now. His expression was again resolute, determined. There was no way he'd let them get to Shadow. Every tiny sound seemed to heighten his awareness and yet at the same time narrow its focus, a focus centred on the corner the soldiers would have to come around. He heard their steps, saw one of them step around the corner, then another and another. In his ready-for-battle state, time seemed to slow down, his incredible abilities coming into play before he'd even started to fight. A life lived like this would have driven him crazy; even as it was sometimes everyone and everything else seemed so slow. The sharpness of his vision and the speed at which he perceived things meant that he could see the rapid on-off flickerings of television or computer screens, even when he wasn't trying. Now, every sense and ability racing up to its peak, he could snap into motion faster than the speed of sound, could spot a tiny movement, think everything he needed to, and dodge aside in the time it took one man to pull a trigger. He watched them seem to move so slowly, watched them stop, listened as one turned to another, whose badge of rank Sonic could not help but notice as every detail entered his mind with the incredible clarity and swiftness that allowed him to move and react so fast.  
  
"Is that it, sir?"  
  
Sonic watched for a few seconds that seemed to take an age to pass by as the higher-ranking soldier stared at him before relying,  
  
"Affirmative."  
  
Still lying on the floor inside the room, Shadow pricked his ears, hearing the voices, knowing what was happening.  
  
"Oh no... Sonic..." He didn't want Sonic hurt, didn't want him to die, but if there were too many of them, if one of them got off a lucky shot as someone had for him... He was afraid for Sonic, as well as himself and Maria, wished he could see what was happening... wished he could help.  
  
Just an instant after Shadow spoke, Sonic snapped into action, leaping forwards far too fast for anyone's eyes but his own and Shadow's to follow, the distinct sound of him breaking the sound barrier echoing through the corridor. He shouted something distorted by his speed, not even aware he had shouted, but the last syllable reached the soldiers' ears before the first, and after Sonic, he was moving so fast. Slowing again beneath the speed of sound as he reached them, but still with his perceptions and reflexes operating at the same incredibly high rate, Sonic looped through the soldiers, knocking them out as he passed. They seemed to take forever to fall, to him, seemed to take forever to even react to his presence amongst them. There was a scattered burst of random-sounding gunfire, wild shots fired in the desperate hope that they might hit something - and then nothing. Sonic landed in the middle of the fallen soldiers, the world speeding up again around him. He'd won. Shadow and Maria were safe.  
  
Inside the room, they, too, had heard him shout, although it was so distorted, so dragged out by his speed, that even though they were behind him and so heard every syllable in the correct order, Shadow had barely understood it. His grip tightened on Maria's hand, a helpless and desperate thought running through his head. 'Please don't get yourself killed, Sonic...'  
  
Then there was the gunfire, and he twitched, tensed involuntarily, afraid that Sonic had lost, had been hit, as it fell silent. There was no sound... and all he could do was hope that Sonic had been the victor.  
  
Standing among the fallen soldiers outside, Sonic listened for any sign of others, tense and alert, shaking very, very slightly after that sudden burst of incredible speed so quickly begun and ended. There was no sound beyond the station's alarms; the area was, at least for now, safe. He walked back to the door, struggled again to open it and then close it behind him, headed for where he'd left Shadow.  
  
Shadow heard the door open and close, hoped desperately it was Sonic, feared that it wouldn't be. But the steps on the floor were one person's only, and light, closer together; the footsteps of a Mobian like himself or Sonic. Shadow breathed a silent sigh of relief, eyes closing. It would be all right, he thought, all right...  
  
Sonic rounded the stack of crates he'd hidden Shadow behind, walked to his side, and knelt, fast, as though his legs had been about to give way. He looked at Shadow's face, pain etched across it, no doubt pale beneath the mostly dark fur.  
  
"...Shadow?"  
  
Shadow heard Sonic's voice, knew he should respond, but he was beginning to feel worse, further removed from what was happening. A weak groan was the only answer Sonic got, and the blue hedgehog put one hand on Shadow's shoulder, staring at him, afraid, for a long moment.  
  
"It's going to be fine..."  
  
But he didn't know if it was. Shadow was getting weaker; he could see that... what if he was going to die of this?! No! Sonic wasn't going to let it happen! He stood up again, crossing to one of the crates, removing the tape that held it closed and opening the lid. Lying amongst assorted other supplies, half-buried, there were several rolls of bandages; Sonic pulled one out, not caring what was pushed aside or broken. He flipped the lid shut again and returned to Shadow's side, staying alert for sounds of danger even as he bandaged Shadow's injured leg. Shadow only flinched a couple of times, the pain seeming oddly remote, along with everything else.  
  
For a little, maybe a minute after Sonic had finished, they stayed there like that, none of them really moving. Sonic half-knelt, tense, straining his hearing to the limit. Had he heard something - had that been the sound of soldiers?! He jumped to his feet and ran to the door, again forcing it open, then closed, himself once more outside.  
  
There was nothing there, at least not yet. He waited, looking up and down the corridor, alert and tense, so tense that he couldn't even be sure if he was hearing sounds of soldiers, or just noises generated by his imagination as he struggled so desperately to hear something that wasn't there. His mind's eye slowly narrowed until the corridor and the room he was defending could have been the whole world, all that had existed or ever would exist, until it seemed as though he would be this way forever. Another part of his mind knew that this couldn't go on forever, but he could no longer think of any way out.  
  
Inside the room Sonic was so desperately trying to protect, Shadow struggled through a haze of pain and a growing unfocused feeling to try and think of something... something important... ...they had to run, get away... get to the escape pods... That was it! They had to get to the escape pods... none of them could stay up here any longer...  
  
"...Sonic...?" he asked weakly, most of the strength gone from his voice, now so quiet that only Maria, sitting next to him, could hear. He hadn't realised Sonic was gone, hadn't noticed him leave, eyes closed as they were.  
  
"He's outside..." Maria replied softly, still so very afraid for him. Shadow hadn't noticed Sonic leaving... was finding it harder to hold on to consciousness... and she was afraid he was going to die...  
  
"...I've got an idea... could you get him...?"  
  
"Yes..." Reluctantly, she let go of Shadow's hand and stood, vision blurring for a moment with tears as she looked down at him before turning to go to the door, calling through it to their strange protector on the other side... someone Shadow seemed to know, though she'd never met him, and Shadow had never mentioned him before... the blue hedgehog named Sonic.  
  
"...Sonic?"  
  
The reply was immediate, Sonic's voice tense, strained.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"...Shadow wants to talk to you..."  
  
She stepped back from the door as Sonic re-entered the little storage room, following him as he crossed to where Shadow lay.  
  
"What is it?" he asked again, his voice as tense as when he'd spoken to her, but in a different way, overlaid with worry and fear for Shadow.  
  
"There's... some escape pods around here... somewhere. I think... if we found them..." A haze of pain fogged his mind, making it hard to keep thinking about it, hard to form the sentence coherently. Shadow struggled against it, fighting to hold onto consciousness, to stay awake at least long enough for them to escape.  
  
If they found the escape pods, they could get out of there! Of course! Sonic knew that would have to be the only way out, and they'd have to go, the sooner the better. There was a way out - all they had to do was get there!  
  
"Maria...? Do you remember... where they are...?" Shadow asked. He couldn't find the way there, not now... it was all so hazy, so hard to concentrate. Although he tried to fix the way in his mind, it slipped away from him as though it were ephemeral fog.  
  
"Y-yes, I think so..." Her voice shook, her fear and worry so audibly apparent, not to mention visibly. Sonic looked from her to Shadow and knelt at Shadow's side, ready to pick him up.  
  
"Then let's go!" They had to leave, the sooner and faster the better. He eased his arms under Shadow and lifted him easily, as carefully as he could. Even so, Shadow's breath caught in a gasp of pain as Sonic shifted him, and the blue hedgehog stared worriedly into Shadow's drawn face for a moment, before following Maria as she began to lead the way to the escape pods.  
  
The trip there seemed at least three times as long as it actually was. Several times, they heard soldiers heading in their general direction, and were forced to stop, to listen until they were sure that they weren't going to run into them, and finally continue once more, caution redoubled. There were gunshots, too, scattered single shots every now and then. Aboard the ARK, people were dying, those who fled shot as they ran or chased until the soldiers caught up. Only that strange twist of the between-worlds void had saved Maria from the death that would have been hers as well, saved her and brought her to this, leading Sonic through the corridors of the station that until now had been the only home she knew. Every last fragment of her inherent belief and faith in the nature of people was being challenged as the soldiers destroyed the place that was her home and her world, by killing its people. Every once-familiar place had become alien and terrifying, as though she was trapped in an endless dark nightmare, a nightmare that would only, maybe, end when they reached the escape pods, so close now, just around the next turn and on the right-hand side of the corridor. Would they be stopped there, would they find only a trap waiting for them...?  
  
But as they turned that corner, there was nothing in the corridor, no-one waiting for them. The row of escape pod doors along it were distinctive, looking unlike most of the other ARK doors.  
  
"Is that it?" asked Sonic urgently. If he hadn't been carrying Shadow, he'd have pointed at one of them. Maria nodded, ran to the closest, keying in the open command with a shaking hand, afraid that the soldiers would somehow have managed to lock down the escape pods so that they couldn't be used. But they hadn't, whether there was no way or whether they simply hadn't thought of it, and the door opened obediently.  
  
Maria knew she was the only one who'd be able to control it. The simple escape pod controls, most of the functions performed automatically by computer, had been taught to her as soon as she was old enough to understand and use them, in case there was some kind of disaster - although no-one had ever envisaged this. She stepped in and sat down in the too-large control seat, strapping herself in, then looking back to make sure Sonic and Shadow were in and safe, so that she could launch it.  
  
Sonic had been right behind her as she entered, closing the hatch after him; now he was sitting Shadow carefully in a chair, strapping him in as best he could with straps meant for humans twice their size. He moved to the next seat and sat down, strapping himself in... and Maria launched the escape pod out into the relative safety of deep, black space.  
  
Shadow looked at Sonic, then over at Maria, piloting the escape pod in a seat meant for adult humans, but remembering the controls and how to use them as they'd been taught to her. They were going to make it... going to be all right... ...and, looking down at his injured leg, he finally gave up the unequal struggle to remain conscious, letting himself slip into the blackness that he'd held off for so long. 


End file.
